Marxism
Marxism
The philosophical, social and economic theories developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A concise statement of the general Marxist position is to be found in the Communist Manifesto.
The philosophical aspect of Marxism is known as dialectical materialism (q.v.); in epistemology it adopts empiricism; in axiology, an interest theory of value strongly tinged, in places, with humanitarianism. The social theory of Marxism centers around the concepts of basic (but not complete) economic determinism (q.v.), and the class character of society. In economics it maintains a labor theory of value (q.v.) which involves the concept of surplus value (q.v.) in the capitalistic mode of production. Upon the basis of its analysis of capitalism, Marxism erects the ethical conclusion that capitalism is unjust and ought to be supplanted by socialism. It predicts for the more or less immediate future the decay of capitalism, an inevitable and victorious revolution of the workers, and the establishing of socialism under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It looks forward to the ultimate goal of the “withering away of the state” leading to a classless society, communistic in economy and self-regulatory in politics. — M.B.M.